Board of Investment

After a couple of interesting days touring around and getting to know the local products, I was invited to a business lunch with delegates from the Philippine Board of Investment. This lunch was attended by Melissa from the Agriculture Office, George from the Planning Office, the local members of the Department of Trade and Industry, and members of the Palawan Chamber of Commerce.

It was enlightening to hear what efforts Manila was making to attract foreign investors, which apparently involves unifying over a hundred separate investment laws into one governing and comprehensive piece of legislation. They are keenly aware that they are falling drastically behind Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, etc. and are keen to bring investment to local communities to help create jobs and develop local economies. Many of the local problems stem from simple things like lack of roads, inconsistent power (one diesel power plant powering everything), and underdeveloped infrastructure. Most lack of investment stems from lack of funds both at the local and federal levels. A community who has a lot of business owners, and a lot of property owners, prospers because there is tax revenue, when people can't afford to start businesses and develop capital and assets, there is less money to go around.

In the afternoon, we met again with other Palawan City Mayors and heads of private industry for a general meeting in the Capitol Building. Here individual parties brought forth their concerns about various issues. Although it was educational to see how the local system worked, after the first half of the meeting, conversations broke into Tagalog, and I couldn't understand much of what was being said. None the less, it gave me a little insight into the different levels at play in making things happen here.